Category: IoT

One of the significant highlights of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent 2017 conference is the company’s IoT Analytics; a fully-managed service that makes the experience of running sophisticated analytics on massive volumes of IoT data flawless. The new AWS system eliminates the worry of cost and complexity typically incurred during the build and deployment of a personal IoT analytics platform. AWS IoT Analytics has rendered an effortless way to run analytics on IoT data, along with gathering ongoing insights to better the experience of decision making for IoT applications and machine learning.

The Complexities of Unstructured Data

Since IoT data is highly unstructured, it became a mission for AWS to simplify data structures so that it would become easier for cognitive computing solutions to analyze the IoT database. This idea is executed through business intelligence tools that are designed to process large unstructured data. IoT data is procured mainly through reasonably noisy processes, which in turn produces extensive and complex data with gaps, corruption, false reading and so on; this data needs to be taken care of before any analysis can occur. Besides, IoT data is often integrated into the context of other data from external sources and must be managed appropriately.

Are you utilizing analytics and the existing information provided by your system to increase problem solving and overcome the obstacles to processing big data? Amazon’s AWS IoT Analytics allows for customers to solve complex problems without complex solutions. Our team here at Idexcel is at the ready and available to work with those who want to ensure they are getting the most out of their AWS setup. Be sure to reach out for our cloud advisory services and accelerate your journey to the cloud.

Analyzing Problems and Providing Solutions

AWS IoT Analytics automates each of these problematic steps that are required to analyze data from IoT devices. IoT Analytics acts as a catalyst that filters, transforms, and enriches information before storing it in a time-series data storage for analysis. The service can then be customized according to the business: which, how much, and when to use appropriate data. AWS IoT Analytics applies mathematical equations to process and then enrich the data with device-specific metadata. Data is then analyzed by running queries using the built-in SQL query engine. IoT Analytics kick starts the process and provides better scope for outputting high accuracy information. IoT Analytics also exhibits the ability to facilitate machine learning through employing pre-built models of common IoT use cases; it can then quickly respond to probable system failure or system incompatibility and suggest replacement of hardware.

AWS IoT Analytics can keenly examine and scale automatically to support up to petabytes of IoT data; it helps analyze data from millions of devices and build fast, responsive IoT applications without managing different hardware or infrastructures. The service complements the driving forces of current IoT infrastructure with differing advancements.

It is worth noting some of the most important benefits of IoT Analytics include:

Quick and Easy Queries on Massive IoT Data – With the help of a built-in IoT Analytics SQL query engine, it becomes effortless to run ad-hoc queries; this service enables the user to use standard SQL queries to extract data directly from the data store to answer potential questions.

Time-Series Analytics – AWS IoT Analytics also supports time-series interpretations to analyze the performance of devices over time in a recurring pattern, and understand their place and manner as they are being employed. Analytics can continuously monitor device data and suggest maintenance actions as needed. The system can also observe sensors to analyze and react to environmental conditions.

Data Storage Optimized for IoT – AWS IoT Analytics stores processed device data and can deliver fast response times on IoT queries. The source data is automatically stored for later processing or to reprocess it for another use case, creating a more intelligent dataset.

Prepare IoT Data for Analysis – AWS IoT Analytics also performs data preparation that makes it easy to prepare and process your data for analysis. Integrated with AWS IoT Core, the service makes it easier to ingest device data directly from connected devices. IoT Analytics filters the data apart from corruption, false readings, and errors, and then the system performs mathematical transformations of message data. Using conditional statements the analytical service filters data, and then collects specific data required for analysis; it also gives the option of using AWS Lambda functions to enrich device data from external sources.

Tools for Machine Learning – AWS IoT Analytics is well suited for machine learning on IoT data as it has the ability hosts Jupyter notebooks. The administrator can directly connect IoT data to the notebook to build, train, and execute models right from the IoT Analytics console. Machine learning algorithms are applied to data all the more readily, which produces a health score for each device in the fleet.

Automated Scaling with Pay-As-You-Go Pricing – AWS IoT Analytics follows a pay-as-you-go service, with which one can analyze an entire fleet of connected devices without managing hardware or infrastructure. As the administrator’s needs change, they can expand or contract computation power. The data store will also automatically scale up or down, which results in the billing of only employed resources.

Amidst primitive turmoil in the IoT world, AWS unveiled its various solutions for IoT spreading over a large range of usage. The directionless forces of IoT will now meet the technologically advanced solutions through the hands of AWS which has offered a wide range of solutions in the arena.

AWS IoT Device Management
This product allows the user to securely onboard, organize, monitor, and remotely manage their IoT devices at scale throughout their lifecycle. The advanced features allow configuring, organizing the device inventory, monitoring the fleet of devices, and remotely managing devices deployed across many locations including updating device software over-the-air (OTA). This automatically results in reduction of the cost and effort of managing large IoT device infrastructure. It further lets the customer provision devices in bulk to register device information such as metadata, identity, and policies.

A new search capability has been added for querying against both the device attribute and device state for quickly finding devices in near real-time. Device logging levels for more granular control and remotely updating device software are also added in view of improving the device functionality.

AWS IoT Analytics
A new brain that will assist the IoT world in cleansing, processing, storing and analyzing IoT data at scale, IoT Analytics is also the easiest way to run analytics on IoT data and get insights that help project better resolutions for future acts.

IoT Analytics includes data preparation capabilities for common IoT use cases like predictive maintenance, asset usage patterns, and failure profiling etc. It also captures data from devices connected to AWS IoT Core, and filters, transforms, and enriches it before storing it in a time-series database for analysis.

The service can be set up to collect specific data for particular devices, apply mathematical transforms to process the data, and enrich the data with device-specific metadata such as device type and location before storing the processed data. IoT Analytics is used to run ad hoc queries using the built-in SQL query engine, or perform more complex processing and analytics like statistical inference and time series analysis.

AWS IoT Device Defender
The product is a fully managed service that allows the user to secure fleet of IoT devices on an ongoing basis. It audits your fleet to ensure it adheres to security best practices, detects abnormal device behavior, alerts you to security issues, and recommends mitigation actions for these security issues. AWS IoT Device Defender is currently not generally available.

Amazon FreeRTOS
Amazon FreeRTOS is an IoT operating system for microcontrollers that enables small, low-powered devices to be easily programed, deployed, secured, connected, and maintained. Amazon FreeRTOS provides the FreeRTOS kernel, a popular open source real-time operating system for microcontrollers, and includes various software libraries for security and connectivity. Amazon FreeRTOS enables the user to easily program connected microcontroller-based devices and collect data from them for IoT applications, along with scaling those applications across millions of devices. Amazon FreeRTOS is free of charge, open source, and available to all.

AWS Greengrass
AWS Greengrass Machine Learning (ML) Inference allows to perform ML inference locally on AWS Greengrass devices using models of machine learning. Formerly, building and training ML models and running ML inference was done almost exclusively in the cloud. Training ML models requires massive computing resources to naturally fit in the cloud. With AWS Greengrass ML Inference, AWS Greengrass devices can make smart decisions quickly as data is being generated, even when they are disconnected.

The product aims at simplifying each step of ML deployment. For example, with its help, the user can access a deep learning model built and trained in Amazon SageMaker directly from the AWS Greengrass console and then download it to the concerned device. AWS Greengrass ML Inference includes a prebuilt Apache MXNet framework to install on AWS Greengrass devices.

It also includes prebuilt AWS Lambda templates that is used to create an inference app. The Lambda blueprint shows common tasks such as loading models, importing Apache MXNet, and taking actions based on predictions.

AWS IoT Core
AWS IoT Core is providing new enhanced authentication mechanisms. Using the custom authentication feature, users will be able to utilize bearer token authentication strategies, such as OAuth, to connect to AWS without using a X.509 certificate on their devices. With this, they can reuse their existing authentication mechanism that they have already invested in.

AWS IoT Core also now makes it easier for devices to access other AWS services, such as to upload an image to S3. This feature removes the need for customers to store multiple credentials on their devices.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is accelerating at an impressive speed, forecasters predict 25 billion devices will be online by 2020, creating over $300 billion in opportunities for companies involved1.

Even with this considerable growth coming in the next five years, most enterprise folks still don’t understand or aren’t invested in the IoT revolution. Management consulting firm Bain & Company believe that’s due to misrepresentation on the definition of IoT. [Continue reading..]

2. What’s trending in the IoT space

Our team has been active as investors in the Internet of Things and hardware space over the past two years. We have read pitches from hundreds of companies, met with dozens, read hundreds of research reports and spoken with various experts. We have invested in six IoT/hardware companies from our global seed fund and seven from our startup accelerator.

With this accumulated knowledge, we decided to create an easy to read overview for others to get up to speed on this trending space of IoT. Here is our full report; the following is a summary of what we learned. [Continue reading..]

3. Here’s how the Internet of Things will explode by 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been labeled as “the next Industrial Revolution” because of the way it will change the way people live, work, entertain, and travel, as well as how governments and businesses interact with the world.

In fact, the revolution is already starting.

That brand new car that comes preloaded with a bunch of apps? Internet of Things. Those smart home devices that let you control the thermostat and play music with a few words? Internet of Things. That fitness tracker on your wrist that lets you tell your friends and family how your exercise is going? You get the point.

There is widespread agreement that the Internet of Things will be a transformative factor in the business use of information. The prospect of billions of connected devices promises to transform home activities, transportation, industrial operations, and many other aspects of our lives.

The bad news about the IoT is that we have a lot of work to do before we are ready for it. We’ve got to up our games considerably with regard to data management and analytics if we’re going to capture, store, access and analyze all the IoT data that will be flowing around the Internet. The good news (in addition to its potential) is that most organizations have a few years to get better at these capabilities before the real onslaught hits. The sensor devices, IoT data standards, and data management platforms are still in their relatively early stages, and no customer, business partner, or CEO could reasonably expect that you could tame all that IoT data today. [Continue reading..]

5. How does the IoT Evolve? In Fits and Starts

It has been quite a week for IoT in the news. The shutting down of Revolv by Nest became a major news item, covered by everyone from Fortune, CNET, Computerworld, NBC, and Yahoo just to name a few.

As usual, Stacy Higginbotham did a nice job in writing about what could have been done instead to make this all easier.

As background – Revolv was a small start-up in Boulder, Colorado. I know a lot about the team there, and like them a lot, so I admit to some bias up front. They built a smart home hub with seven radios to speak to 10 of the most popular smart home protocols. [Continue reading..]

6. What’s the Connection Between IoT and DevOps?

DevOps is the automation of Agile, using tools and processes that remove the traditional latency from application development. DevOps transformations are systemic to both enterprises and ISVs that I work with these days. Everyone now knows that it’s critical to make the best use of cloud computing, big data, and, now, the Internet of Things (IoT). [Continue reading..]

7. Will IoT Lock Down Your House Or Open The Door To Hackers?

Imagine a time when the transfer of data is fast and seamless, or a world where you control your devices without moving a finger. IoT, or the Internet of Things, looks to push that envelope of convenience and efficiency. IoT devices are becoming increasingly popular among homeowners seeking to make their homes automated and their day-to-day tasks easier. [Continue reading..]

8. New Business Drives Hitachi’s Internet of Things Strategy

We can now count Hitachi among the list of companies that has formed a division to specifically target the Internet of Things (IoT). This is a move that many automation suppliers are finding necessary as they try to better manage the technologies and expertise needed to capture this important market. [Continue reading..]

When a mobile app asks you to share personal data with a company, what do you do?
It probably depends on what you expect to get in return. That’s the new data economy consumers and brands are dealing with today: Companies want good user data, and users want good products and experiences. [Continue reading..]

10. How Silicon Valley is botching IoT

The “Internet of things” has been a Silicon Valley buzzword for the last few years, so it’s ironic that we seem to read almost as much tech news coverage about Internet of things hacking. In recent months, for example, VentureBeat has reported that the FBI is warning car makers and owners about vehicle hacking risks, and that IoT devices may be exploited as Trojan horses. And just a few days ago, we heard about a glitch at smart doorbell company Ring that exposed videos of users’ homes to other users. [Continue reading..]

The Internet of Things (IoT) – with its network of objects and computers that collect and distribute data on our lives – has all the promise of making those lives easier. But are we in danger of IoT overload?

We live in an interesting age where virtually everything we own can be connected to the Internet. Your phone, television, security system, and car are just the start. These devices may connect directly – through your home Wi-Fi router or via Internet-connected devices such as your smartphone or even your home thermostat. Continue reading